GM Gareev Training to Break Blindfold World Record on Chess.com!

Starting on January 16, 2013, Grandmaster Timur Gareev will compete against Chess.com members in a unique bi-weekly event: He will attempt to break the world record for total number of boards played in a Blindfold Simultaneous match at the end of the calendar year, and he will use our Live Chess server as the arena to prepare himself!

To help him achieve this amazing goal, Chess.com has developed an invisible chess set, which we are releasing for use by ALL members in Live Chess within the week! In "Blindfold Mode," Timur will be able to view only the move lists of each game: He will have no visual indication of the pieces on the board.

To complete a move, he will have to click the square of the piece he intends to move, and then click the target square. The time controls for the simul are rapid: 25 minutes, with a 30-second increment - and not being able to see the pieces will increase the level of difficulty tenfold (ten games each simul)!

On game day, Timur will open up for challenges at 2:00pm Pacific, 5:00pm Eastern - and members will have an opportunity to compete against him on a first-come / first-served basis. (Unlike Timur, these lucky members will, of course, be able to see all the pieces during their game!)

Chess.com will have live coverage of the first event on Chess.com/tv - with commentary by IM Daniel Rensch, as well as pre- and post-match interviews with GM Gareev. Though the format of each bi-weekly simul is still a "work in progress", Chess.com intends to have live webcam footage of Timur as he plays each Simul on Chess.com/tv. The first four dates have already been set and can be found on the Chess.com/tv schedule page!

In addition to actually playing the simul, Grandmaster Gareev will offer a "video lecture recap" of each exhibition match, reviewing the games to highlight the critical and instructional moments for our members.